UNIVERSITY of CINCINNATI July 26, 2005 Susan Streeter Carpenter
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:___________________ I, _________________________________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in: It is entitled: This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ LIBERTY BOULEVARD by Susan Streeter Carpenter Doctoral Dissertation Department of English & Comparative Literature University of Cincinnati July 2005 ABSTRACT: Liberty Boulevard is a historical novel set in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1968. The primary characters are radical activists, members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), increasingly aware of how the Vietnam war, the racism of Cleveland police, the poverty of inner city neighborhoods, and their own alienation as students are all part of the sick “system” which must be overthrown. Inspired by the Columbia University students’ takeover, they plan to ignite the revolution in Cleveland. Ivy Barcelona, a twenty-year-old Case-Western Reserve student, adds the local draft resistance to her militant activities. Her boyfriend, Chuck Leggit, is putting himself through school at Cleveland State. After a lucrative summer bank job proves demeaning, he drops out to work full-time for revolutionary change – thus losing his draft deferment. With Jane Revard, the third major character, he starts an underground newspaper. Jane is twenty-five, a seasoned activist who has worked on Ban the Bomb campaigns, registered voters in Mississippi, visited Hanoi on a peace mission, and helped organize a Welfare Rights group. She has also developed feminist consciousness which she transmits to Ivy. Cleveland’s popular African American mayor, Carl B. Stokes, has calmed the black community after the King assassination and garnered financial support from Cleveland businesses.
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